The mysterious shoe that Danica Patrick ran over while leading the Nationwide Series race at Montreal last week did not cause the mechanical problems that knocked Patrick out of the race, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. told espnW.com.

"The shoe didn't have anything to do with it," Eury said. "It was funny listening to everybody talk about the shoe. I've never done that before.

A shoe thrown on the road course at Montreal did not cause the damage that crippled Danica Patrick's car, her crew chief says. (AP Photo)

“It could have done something to the splitter or went through the radiator just as easy and took the radiator out, but as far as the problems we had with the car, it was no relation."

Patrick led a career-high 20 laps at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and was out front when she ran over a shoe that had been thrown on the track on Lap 38 of 81.

NASCAR officials confirmed to espnW.com that the fan who tossed the shoe over a safety fence was escorted from the track. NASCAR officials still have the shoe.

Eury said Patrick had been complaining about the handling of her car before running over the shoe. The team thought she broke the track bar from bouncing over curbs on the road course.

"I honestly thought the track bar mount was coming off the frame on the left side to start with," Eury said. "Basically what happened was the car was wheel-hopping so much—she wheel-hopped it a couple times getting deep into a brake zone—it basically stretched the U bolts and the pinion shims came out, so that loosened the truck arms up."

Her JR Motorsports team fixed the problem, and Patrick was still in contention when the axle on her car broke, leading to her 27th-place finish.

“It was actually the axle breaking that took us out the event,” Eury said.